My son, his two grandpas, and I headed out on a second season elk hunt that won't be forgotten. He drew an "any elk" tag in Oregon with his second choice, so this would be his first opportunity to shoot a bull elk. He told me ahead of time that he was going to try and hold out for his first bull. We scouted the unit during buck season and saw some elk, so we planned on making the hike in and needing at least four hunters to pack meat.
It was a long way in on BLM land crossing a lot of fences so we decided to leave the horses and bring the packs. That is where hide member FUBAR1217 stepped up. JC wanted to use my heavy 338 edge built by WNROSCOE and we needed a way to pack it. FUBAR1217 had an Eberle g2 for sale in the new members section and I bought it from him. Catch was, it was a week before the season started. FUBAR1217 upgraded the shipping on his dime from NY to OR, to make sure the pack arrived in time. As it turned out I was able to get another similar pack from a co-worker for the trip too. Now the rifle WNROSCOE built I picked up from the original builder, but it is a single shot on a Rem700, 30" 1in8. I've always shot Shawn Carlock's basic load of 92gr H1000 and 300MK. JC shot his first elk at 600 yards with it when he was 12, and we laughed when it blew the dirt off the back of the cow when the bullet struck.
So on 11/02/13 we found ourselves 3.5 miles into the hilly sage area of the unit bordering the Snake River. We were starting to see a few bucks that had our attention when we looked up a draw and spotted our first elk, and it was a bull. My dad was getting pretty excited as he has been archery hunting the last 35 years. He really got excited when we spotted six more bulls. A seven bull bachelor herd and they were all branched bulls. Grandpa was so excited we had to tell him to hold his voice down.
JC got the rifle out of the pack and went prone with it. Both grandpas said we should use the terrain and sneak in for a shot. That sounded like a good plan but neither of them boys had a 338 edge when they hunted. I ranged the elk at 648 yards at a 15 degree angle. I put 12 MOA elevation into the Nightforce and the wind was light enough I did not account for any. It looks like there was about 3130ft/lbs of energy when it got there. Needles to say JC held hard and smoked it right behind the shoulder at point of aim. The bull just fell right in it's tracks, it's legs folding underneath as if for the perfect photo op. The grandpas were very proud and very impressed with their 16yo grandson. I was working on doping the shot so I did not pay that close attention to how big any of the bulls were. We just focused on the one that presented the best broadside shot. From 650 it did not look like anything huge as I archery hunt exclusively and am used to seeing elk in my front pocket practically. When we walked up on JC's first bull the first thing I felt was pure excitement for him, but the second thing I thought was "holy shit" we gotta pack this thing. I called the grandpas the next day to make sure they got out of bed and they surprisingly both said they'd do it again. The bull scored 321 gross and because of a broken second on one side it probably ends up right at 300. It has a couple cool little stickers that come up off the eye guards. The 300mk entered and blew to bits with no exit. Some small shrapnel of copper jacket on the far side is all we found but was very effective.
Definitely one I will never forget. Thanks again to Jerry and William for the part they played in this hunt as well.
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It was a long way in on BLM land crossing a lot of fences so we decided to leave the horses and bring the packs. That is where hide member FUBAR1217 stepped up. JC wanted to use my heavy 338 edge built by WNROSCOE and we needed a way to pack it. FUBAR1217 had an Eberle g2 for sale in the new members section and I bought it from him. Catch was, it was a week before the season started. FUBAR1217 upgraded the shipping on his dime from NY to OR, to make sure the pack arrived in time. As it turned out I was able to get another similar pack from a co-worker for the trip too. Now the rifle WNROSCOE built I picked up from the original builder, but it is a single shot on a Rem700, 30" 1in8. I've always shot Shawn Carlock's basic load of 92gr H1000 and 300MK. JC shot his first elk at 600 yards with it when he was 12, and we laughed when it blew the dirt off the back of the cow when the bullet struck.
So on 11/02/13 we found ourselves 3.5 miles into the hilly sage area of the unit bordering the Snake River. We were starting to see a few bucks that had our attention when we looked up a draw and spotted our first elk, and it was a bull. My dad was getting pretty excited as he has been archery hunting the last 35 years. He really got excited when we spotted six more bulls. A seven bull bachelor herd and they were all branched bulls. Grandpa was so excited we had to tell him to hold his voice down.
JC got the rifle out of the pack and went prone with it. Both grandpas said we should use the terrain and sneak in for a shot. That sounded like a good plan but neither of them boys had a 338 edge when they hunted. I ranged the elk at 648 yards at a 15 degree angle. I put 12 MOA elevation into the Nightforce and the wind was light enough I did not account for any. It looks like there was about 3130ft/lbs of energy when it got there. Needles to say JC held hard and smoked it right behind the shoulder at point of aim. The bull just fell right in it's tracks, it's legs folding underneath as if for the perfect photo op. The grandpas were very proud and very impressed with their 16yo grandson. I was working on doping the shot so I did not pay that close attention to how big any of the bulls were. We just focused on the one that presented the best broadside shot. From 650 it did not look like anything huge as I archery hunt exclusively and am used to seeing elk in my front pocket practically. When we walked up on JC's first bull the first thing I felt was pure excitement for him, but the second thing I thought was "holy shit" we gotta pack this thing. I called the grandpas the next day to make sure they got out of bed and they surprisingly both said they'd do it again. The bull scored 321 gross and because of a broken second on one side it probably ends up right at 300. It has a couple cool little stickers that come up off the eye guards. The 300mk entered and blew to bits with no exit. Some small shrapnel of copper jacket on the far side is all we found but was very effective.
Definitely one I will never forget. Thanks again to Jerry and William for the part they played in this hunt as well.
